Past Episodes

Love Makes A Way

Summary

Jarrod McKenna and Teresa Lee are Christian activists. They are amongst a growing number of Christians turning to civil disobedience to try to effect change.

They share their home in Perth with refugee families and work to make their transition to Australian life as positive as possible while demonstrating in politicians’ offices to draw attention to the plight of children in detention. Inspired by the American civil rights movement their cause is faith based striving to achieve justice for asylum seekers and refugees.

Story producer: Olivia Rousset, Tracey Spring

Story researcher: Mark Webb, Francoise Fombertaux

Story

GERALDINE DOOGUE: Hello. Welcome to Compass as we travel to Western Australia to meet two young Christian activists who share their home with refugee families and help make their transition to Australian life as positive as possible. They've also taken inspiration from the American civil rights movement to try to affect change in Australia's asylum-seeker policy, with often controversial results.

JARROD McKENNA: When Jesus says 'Love your neighbour,' there's no asterisk next to it that says, 'As long as they vote like you, look like you, live on the same side of town as you and worship like you.' It's just 'Love your neighbour,' So, whoever God sends our way who is in need and we can provide assistance, we seek to do that. You so often hear that refugees are a problem. These are people who are fleeing the most horrific things, who, when they arrive on our shore, I think we should greet them with, like, standing ovations that they've actually survived. We're waging a battle but we're using different weapons - it's the weapons that heal instead of the weapons that harm.

JARROD: Who's having coffee?

TERESA: Not me. But go see if Talib's up, if he wants some, if Talib wants some coffee.

GERALDINE: Jarrod McKenna and Teresa Lee live in Perth in a home that is difficult to describe.

TERESA: Most of the time we'll just say that we share our house and we live in a community with recently arrived Australians. And that's usually my way to kind of open it up, because it's, like, if I start there and depending on how they respond, I might go to the next level and explain that, um... that they've come as asylum-seekers or refugees.

JARROD: Talib. Do you want some coffee?

TERESA LEE: It has been one of the greatest blessings in my life to be able to do this. I actually can't believe that I get to live this life.

JARROD: I don't know what faith means if it doesn't mean action. Like, I mean, I studied philosophy and I studied theology, but, for me, unless it's like rolling up your sleeves and putting love in action, I'm not sure what it all means.

GERALDINE: Jarrod is a Charismatic pastor and an adviser to World Vision Australia. Teresa's a social worker. Three years ago they started helping refugees who were trying to build new lives. But the West Australian mining boom made finding accommodation almost impossible.

NEWSREADER: The rental property market in Perth has tightened even further. According to the latest figures, the city is just about the most difficult capital in the country to find somewhere to live.

TERESA: I think there was, like, 1% rental vacancy or something ridiculous like that, and people had to bid, so I'm thinking, 'OK, what on earth is happening to my friends that are refugees and asylum-seekers, like...?' You come here, you've got no rental history, you've got no job. Like, you just can't compete let alone outbid someone another $50 to be able to rent a property.

GERALDINE: Then Teresa and Jarrod had an idea...

TERESA: What if we became landlords? Like, that would be awesome. And then we could provide them with accommodation and then they'd have an opportunity to get a rental history and then be able to find their own place afterwards.

GERALDINE: Jarrod and Teresa had already saved $10,000 for a deposit on a place to buy. They started looking and fell in love with a large property that had potential for three separate living spaces.

TERESA: When we laid eyes on it, it was completely dilapidated, it was walls with massive holes in it. We found out that it was a drug lab at one stage in its life. We actually used to climb through the window and just walk around, and dream about what we thought might be possible in this place.

GERALDINE: They put in an offer and went to the bank, assuming they would easily qualify for a loan. But things didn't go according to plan.

JARROD: 14 different banking institutions said no.

GERALDINE: The banks saw it as a commercial rather than residential venture. They were running out of options, so with the help of friends, they quickly put together a crowd-funding video.

JARROD: Like many Aussies our age, we want to buy our first home.

TERESA: So, we put in an offer for our first home - Not just for us, but for new Aussie families too. It was accepted by the owner, yet lenders are finding it hard to understand what we're about and aren't prepared to give us a loan.

JARROD: Then a mate rings up, says, 'We've got about 40,000,' that they'd been saving for their own home.

TERESA: Then someone else said, 'We have 55 grand that we're prepared to lend you to help your dream become a reality.'

JARROD: Then we realised the banks might not get it but maybe you do, maybe you want to be our bank.

TERESA: We need to come up with 600,000 by either loan or donation by Sunday 12 August.

GERALDINE: The pressure was on to create a buzz so powerful that people would want to act as their bank. And they had just two weeks or they'd lose their deposit. They called in some high-profile friends to help.

FATHER BOB MAGUIRE: Because it's backed up by two honest blokes like you and me...(Laughs) ..we're giving a guarantee, a personal moral guarantee. Aren't we?

TIM COSTELLO: Absolutely.

FATHER BOB MAGUIRE: That this is, I was gonna say, 'This is a good bet,' but I'm paying respect to your.. to your...

TIM COSTELLO: A Costello and a Maguire, you can trust though, can't you?

FATHER BOB MAGUIRE: Yes! The double. (Tim chuckles)

TERESA: So, it went international. Even made the news in Albania. (Laughs) Like... We've got investors in Hawaii. Like, it just went viral and just went huge. So, we've got people invest within Australia, not predominantly Perth, like, across Australia, and most people, we've no idea who they are.

GERALDINE: Today the property's been transformed into the First Home Project made up of three fully occupied units. In one, Teresa and Jarrod live with their teenage son Tyson and two volunteers from America. Next door is a shared house with five young Afghan men. The third is home to a family of seven from Afghanistan.

TERESA: We're talking remote Afghanistan in the mountains, so this is their first-ever experience living in an urban reality. They had only been in Australia for three months when they moved in with us.

TERESA: Oh, I feel like this is gonna be my job, right, to put the custard.

NORIA: It doesn't matter, anything you can do.

TERESA: There's a mother, Noria, who is an amazing cook and makes the best flat bread out. Then there's Razi. Razi is the father. Razi is the first person that will attempt to try anything that we do here that's fun. So, if we're playing basketball... He was the first one, even over the young guys, to learn how to skate.

JARROD: Fellas, grab a board.

TALIB: I'm Talib.

MAN: What is it?

TALIB: Talib.

MAN: Talib.

ANDREW: Andrew.

MAN: Andrew.

GERALDINE: Talib is one of the young Afghan men who share the third unit at First Home Project. They all arrived in Australia as unaccompanied minors.

TERESA: One of the young men, Talib, he reminds me so much of my son. There is this innocence and beauty and love of life.

TALIB: When you paddle, you're gonna go like this, very deep.

BOY: Mm-hm.

TALIB: Yeah.

GERALDINE: Talib is an Hazara. This Afghan minority group has been persecuted for centuries, constantly fleeing to neighbouring countries for a safe haven that does not exist.

TALIB: Hazara people are in danger. They get killed, and it's like, um... we are not a part of that country. You know? So life is really hard for us. Um... Yeah, so that's the reason that people moving from... Yeah, I don't know... what is happening, what is the reason that they kill us? Yeah, it's pretty confusing.

GERALDINE: Sahil lives with Talib at First Home Project.

TERESA: I guess our hope is that through the time that people are here, they actually have a time to kind of just settle and feel safe, 'cause you need safety to be able to learn, you can't concentrate if you feel unsafe. So, what we've found is, generally speaking, people need about 16 months. The journey of adjusting is huge. I guess our hope is that we can support them through friendship - friendship is the centre of everything that we do.

GERALDINE: After graduating from Year 12, Sahil is now studying at TAFE to become a mechanical fitter.

TERESA: He told us that he was graduating and was just gonna rock up on his own, and we were, like, 'Well, we will have none of that.' So, we brought a bit of a gang along for his graduation and it was really beautiful because when we were introduced to his teachers, he said, 'Oh, this is my family', which... (Chuckles) ..it was a beautiful thing to, um... Yeah. I guess that he, in such a short period of time - 'cause they've only been here for, like, three months - um, I guess feels that sense of support around him.

JARROD: The second miracle this morning is that my sermon will only be about 10 to 15 minutes.

(Congregation laughs)

JARROD: Oh, I should pray. That's what pastors are supposed to do.

(Laughter)

JARROD: Let's pray. Lord, would you keep us from easy answers. Would you keep us from hard hearts.

JARROD: I'm a Charismatic, I'm one of those happy clappers that people make fun of. Like, in worship, I'm one of those who sticks their hands up. I'm a Bible-reading, tongue-talking Jesus-loving Christian - that's who I am.

TERESA: Blood of Christ shed for you.

WOMAN: Amen.

JARROD: Last year, Jarrod helped initiate Love Makes A Way. This faith-based movement works to change current asylum-seeker policy through prayer and nonviolent activism.

JARROD: We want to create the kind of environment where you can be brought into the story - the Love Makes A Way story, the larger story of nonviolent resistance which it's drawing on - and find your place in that story.

(Footage of Dr Martin Luther King at a rally in the US)

JARROD: The philosophy behind Love Makes A Way comes from the teachings of Dr Martin Luther King, who led the US civil rights movement that started in the 1950s. Jarrod has been training in America with original members of Dr King's team. Here he has studied strategy and techniques of nonviolent activism.

JARROD: Martin Luther King talked about that there comes a time when you must dramatise the issue so that the public can understand what's really going on. Which group would like to kick us off?

WOMAN: Um, the big thing for Sally and I was the idea of fighting back but not actually fighting - the idea that one can fight back without violence, I think that was something that was quite powerful to hear.

JARROD: Yeah, great.

GERALDINE: Love Makes A Way training sessions teach the skills required to take part in an action. This involves a prayerful sit-in at the office of an influential politician.

JARROD: And then we chuck you in the deep end. So, some of you, later this month, will actually be arrested with each other, some of you for the first time.

GERALDINE: Today the group meets to plan an all-women action. Jarrod will act as support. They will enter their local senator's office and stage a prayer-based sit-in until they get an answer to their question, 'When will the children be released from detention?' The first hurdle is to get the group in through the front door.

TERESA: I don't want to let the door physically close until someone else is behind me, 'cause I'm not sure if it then just closes and you have to be buzzed out.

TERESA, VOICE-OVER: My own personal involvement in terms of Love Makes A Way actually came as quite a surprise to me.

GERALDINE: Today Teresa is a strong and highly capable young woman, but as a child she was vulnerable to abuse.

TERESA: Both my parents are profoundly deaf and so I grew up speaking sign language. So, I learnt how to sign before I could speak. From the youngest age that I can remember, I experienced a pretty severe form of trauma in lots of different expressions that meant that when I was 14 years old, the Department of Child Protection, um, felt it was necessary to remove me from my home for my own safety. It was difficult to trust. It was... Yeah, it was difficult to see and believe in the goodness of humanity when that's the world that you experience via your parents.

GERALDINE: So, Teresa looked for safety elsewhere, and at 15, became pregnant with her son, Tyson.

TERESA: This little being taught me what it means to love, what it means to trust, what it means to feel joy. When he was little I used describe him as ‘my happy little Buddha' 'cause he was this happy... just this happy, happy little soul.

GERALDINE: When Teresa enrolled three-year-old Tyson into Sunday school, she found the church embraced her with open arms in a way that society did not.

TERESA: I guess for the first time experiencing that kind of love through this community, which obviously led me to go, 'What is it that's different? 'Ah, it's Jesus.' So, at the age of 19 is when I had my baptism, which I don't have any other way to explain it, it's not a rational thing but just a purely emotional thing. For me, it felt like the very first breath of life.

GERALDINE: Teresa's life still revolves around her church. But over the years, she has gravitated to those who share her belief in social justice.

EIRA CLAPTON, UNITING CHURCH MINISTER: Should we be unable to actually get inside, that we stay outside.

JARROD: There's over 170 Christian leaders who have been involved in Love Makes A Way so far. They are putting their careers on the line, they're putting their reputation on the line. Offers to speak at other churches can sometimes dry up when you take these kind of actions - job promotions and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, pastors and priests like everybody else have mortgages and all the rest, and yet they risk all that.

EIRA CLAPTON: I'm a little nervous, yes. I'm naturally a person who usually obeys the law. I'm a person who's been used to being nice to people. Today I'm being disobedient.

GERALDINE: The success of this action depends on everyone being able to get into the senator's office. They need a code word that confirms the first woman has managed to get through the front door.

WOMAN: I think if you've got the mic on, it might be better if say 'lovely' or 'thank you', 'cause...

(Laughter)

WOMAN: ..'cause they will be... they will be saying, 'Well, we'll get a card that you can fill in.' As soon as the door is open, you just say, 'lovely' or 'thank you'.

(Laughter)

ALL: 'Lovely’. 'Lovely.' 'Lovely.'

WOMAN 2: So, I'll just let you do the talking, right? And then, um...

WOMAN: What will be will be.

(Electronic bleep, door opens)

WOMAN: Lovely. Thank you.

SECURITY GUARD: Hello.

WOMAN: Hi.

GERALDINE: The plan has worked. As designated spokeswoman, Teresa smoothes the way.

TERESA: I thought I should just briefly introduce myself. My name is Teresa. You're probably looking around, going, 'Why on earth are there so many people?' Can I start by giving you these flowers, because I'm just gonna let you know this'll probably be an out-of-the-ordinary day for you.

EIRA CLAPTON: These were pictures that were produced for the Australian Commission on Human Rights in their inquiry into children in detention. The one that I am holding is a picture of two children behind bars. And it was drawn by a child who was two years and five months old..

WOMAN: My picture's drawn by a seven-year-old. It's of a man, or a person, pointing a gun. There are two children lying on the ground with blood coming out of their head and their hearts. This child has witnessed the cruel death of other children and is being held in detention without the kind of therapeutic treatment any child would need... ..to recover from seeing this.

POLICE OFFICER: Hello, guys, how you going?

ALL: Hi.

POLICE OFFICER: Lovely to meet you all.

TERESA: You too.

JARROD: Literally, police officers have shook our hands before arresting us. That says something about... that they can see that it's about the issue and not about us. As one of the police said to us, 'If this wasn't my job, I'd be in here doing this with you.'

CHURCH MINISTER: We have prayed for you.

POLICE OFFICER: Have you?

(Laughter)

CHURCH MINISTER: No, quite seriously we have prayed for all of the police and everybody who's been involved.

GERALDINE: While the small talk is friendly, the police still have a job to do.

POLICE OFFICER: If you have a look at the number of police that are here today - that's the entire number police department of Perth at the moment, which means, technically, I don't have any vehicles out there in Perth at the moment, so if a serious offence occurs out there in Perth, I don't have anyone responding to it at the moment. So, this is how serious it is. I've got all the police here right now for you guys.

EIRA CLAPTON: Lord deliver us. Help the police officers in their duties and help us all until the day when we will celebrate with a gigantic party that there is no-one left in detention.

GERALDINE: This action ended peacefully. The women were arrested and then released. The next Love Makes A Way protest was a very different story.

JARROD: I'm not sure how it got to... the stripsearch.

GERALDINE: It started peacefully enough. They arrived with flowers and homemade biscuits. After a nine-hour sit-in they were arrested and taken to the Perth Watch House and charged with trespass. They were then stripped naked and searched for drugs and firearms.

JARROD: We're talking about grandmothers who were Anglican priests who are humiliated by our police force. And it's things like the long pauses in silence as you stand their naked in front of strangers, making you turn around, put your hands on the wall and squat, cough, and then just waiting. The hardest thing for me was, um... hearing my gorgeous wife sob from the cell next door... and, uh... um... and a sense of, 'Do you know what she's been through? You put her through that?' And I was so angry. So angry.

GERALDINE: Ironically, the police response that day secured Love Makes A Way the sort of press coverage most activists only dream about.

JARROD: It looks bad. Arresting priests and pastors isn't a great look.

GERALDINE: No conviction was recorded. When the group left court, they continued their protest.

JARROD: You're welcome to join us. We're gonna walk in single file, those with signs.

GERALDINE: It was a symbolic gesture to restore their dignity and keep the issue on the front page.

JARROD: If Christian activism is anything, it's handing back all the ugliness and trusting that something beautiful can be made from it if we continue to go Jesus's way of love.

GERALDINE: It's Friday at First Home Project. A social occasion that brings together friends and neighbours past and present. Volunteers, refugees in community detention, musicians and foodies. Some have come just for the fun.

TERESA: Fun is just such an important aspect of the life that we have here. (Chuckles) So, if you can imagine that you have been on a journey, trying to come to Australia. So, let's assume that you've been through a detention process and now you're on a bridging visa where you're not sure if you're actually going to be granted your freedom. So, you can imagine that the mental health just starts to deteriorate. So, they come here on a Friday night and it's just fun.

TERESA: The thing that I've noticed is that you get a chance to be able to experience a part of yourself that's still is really alive. It's why you're here - it's your resilience. So, I get to see these young guys just having fun. Just like my son, just having fun.

(Laughter)(Music and overlapping conversations)

YOUNG MAN (Raps) You tell them 'Wrong,' who think hell is a lie (Sings indistinctly) Let me hear you, you ready? Say 'I'm a dreamer' ALL: I'm a dreamer YOUNG MAN: Say 'I'm a dreamer' ALL: I'm a dreamer.

JARROD: This is the best way we've found to spend our lives, and so it's for selfish reasons that we're getting caught up in this stuff. But if you lose your life in the service others, you suddenly find that your stuff is put into perspective. You realise it's not all about you, that life's not all about you.

WOMAN (Sings) Nothing will stop us We'll not be downcast We'll never give up...

TERESA: These people I live with, they're my teachers. I learn so much from them, and it's totally changed who I am as a person.

JARROD: If anybody met any of these people and heard their stories, entered into their world, it's the greatest gift to Australia.

WOMAN (Sings) World, we will change the world. (Cheering and applause)

END

Comments (2)

Kerry Anne Kelly :

01 Dec 2015 9:07:13am

Thank you for the program "Love Makes a Way"What you all went through at the police station would have been so difficult. You all put yourselves in the shoes of the refugees and did it with dignity. I admire your strength and your ability to use non violence.I have a Hazara boat person living with me at present.He has taught me much about courage, survival, observation, love and groth as a person. We can all learn from each other. My prayers and best wishes go with you all.